Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 687: Phantom
'Alielil is fighting?' Aldaii did not turn around to make sure with his own eyes, but his senses weren't dull enough to make a mistake like that.
'I don't sense any opponent through… A restless adept at concealment, huh?' he raised an eyebrow, his attention focused on the restless that had come to confront him, or rather, that had shown up as the bony fellow landed on a wooden building and just sat down, dressed in clothing stolen from warriors who had perished on the other side.
"So… Are you going to make a move or what?" Aldaii felt confident in himself, but wasn't so reckless as to attack without thinking, that restless definitely seemed rather confident as well to just casually lounge about with an enemy so close.
"Am I supposed to? I fear that I am in no hurry to claim victory, in fact, I am afraid that my purpose does not involve securing victory over you" the restless responded with its hollow voice that seemed to echo within its own body.
This particular restless had a huge, perfectly circular hole in his skull, clawed hands that could definitely cut through flesh with ease and a long, clubbed tail.
His body thin and slender, he didn't move at all and just kept staring at the living, if that hole could count as an eye.
"Very well then… I just had to end up with a coward as my opponent, I suppose…"
Manifesting his sheathed weapon out of a torrent of soul sparks, he took it out of its scabbard with most deliberateness, revealing a liuyedao, or willow-leaf sabre, the strength contained in this blade reflecting the strength governed by its wielder, the one whose soul had birthed it.
"Not intent on just waiting around for the end with me? Alright… Come" without standing up, the restless motioned for Aldaii to come closer with its index-claw.
'That guy is awfully confident… Bluff? A trap? Just convinced that it does not need to stand up to evade me?' the living shrugged, his lips moving, and with one use of Siften Steppe, appeared directly behind the enemy, sabre swung at the neck with tremendous swiftness.
Aldaii's Siften Steppe was on a completely different level than Bilistam's had been, it could very easily be passed off as teleportation to those incapable of perceiving the movement as it was so quick and stealthy that it barely displaced the air despite the great acceleration.
Xator wasn't oblivious to what had just happened, and the stagnant soul energy contained within his skull flared up, creating a small pulse that forced him onto his back just before the blade could chop his head off, bringing two claws before his sole socket, he pressed some of the energy that emerged in between them, firing a compressed bullet up at the living, who avoided the attack with another usage of Siften Steppe, the technique's name, flowing out of his lips in a whisper.
"What a handy ability that is, but is it that you folks never seem to use anything other than that? Surely you have more techniques of this kind lying about, right?" the restless finally stood up, his tail twisting in the air and claws flexing with the sound of bone grinding against bone.
"Boult" not bothering to conceal his speaking of the technique's name, Aldaii pointed his finger at Xator firing a simple bullet of soul energy, which was slapped away with ease by the restless.
"Because it's the only one that's worth it"
"Mmh" taking note of the fact that Aldaii had yet to activate any of these auxiliary techniques without speaking their name, Xator neared his claws to his face, the stagnant energy rubbing off on them and coating each of the claws.
Leaping forward, the restless went on the offensive, his sharp appendages acquiring extended reach thanks to the foul soul energy they were augmented by, a deluge and slashes, kicks and sneaky tail strikes befell the living, who remained perfectly calm as he evaded and parried everything, all the while not even using the first step of his manifested weapon.
Xator knew that his opponent was fishing for him to show the greater extent of his power first so that he could more easily outsmart and defeat him with his own abilities that the restless wouldn't know about.
Dragging the clubbed end of his tail across the ground, the restless propelled debris at the living, all the while raising one claw, up and slashing it across the hair, causing the soul energy coating this one in particular to be ejected forth into a crescent slash.
Without waiting to see the result or reaction from the living, Xator swung all five claws on his other hand at once, manifesting a curtain of slashes followed by each of the four remaining claws being fired individually.
Aiming to cut off as many paths of escape as possible, if he used Siften Steppe and hit a stray energy slash, Aldaii would probably be cut even more deeply than otherwise, but it wasn't enough to cut off all of them, and the living snuck past the slash and appeared in front of the restless, blade thrusting right for his face-hole.
Without a word, Xator's socket flared up again, but this time in a slightly different manner as it did not push out any of the stagnant energy.
"Oh" the living exclaimed aloud as he realised what was happening, looking much too happy about it to Xator's taste.
Every energy slash was being pulled back from where it had come from, and that with the same speed they had been flung forth with, even then, Aldaii had enough time to move away, although he definitely did so with more haste than before, as a thin cut appeared on the back of his robes.
"Alright, I guess you're actually pretty good… The ability you developed actually gives you ample control over the soul energy you stock inside your skull, huh? That's more refined than what I expected" the living was truly surprised, the abilities of restless were linked to their physiology interacting with soul energy, so it tended to be rather cut and dry, a special body part that could do certain things and that was it.
Xator was actually much more flexible and was closer to free manipulation of soul energy, making him a most tricky opponent, especially since he could pull back the expanded energy, effectively, Xator could not be worn down at all, his energy was basically infinite from the looks of things.
"I'll have to actually tire myself out… Phantom" speaking the name, Aldaii held his liuyedao in front of him as he activated the first step of his manifested soul sword.
And nothing changed about it, only the pressure and danger it emitted had grown, but no clue was given to what its ability actually was.
Read lat𝙚st chapters at fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓ Only.
He began walking at a slow pace toward the restless, his blade held casually to the side, its tip direction at the ground.
"Good thing we are away from the weaklings, you may try to blast me with your full power, little restless"
"Full power? Now, let's not get too presumptuous…"
